September 15, 2003: Denmark has imposed a ban on the spraying of glyphosates today following the release of data which found that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide (RR) has been contaminating the drinking water resources of the country.

The chemical has, against all expectations sieving down through the soil and polluting the ground water at a rate of five times more than the allowed level for drinking water, according to tests done by the Denmark and Greenland Geological Research Institution (DGGRI) as reported below.

"When we spray glyphosate on the fields by the rules it has been shown that it is washed down into the upper ground water with a concentration of 0.54 micrograms per litre. This is very surprising, because we had previously believed that bacteria in the soil broke down the glyphosate before it reached the ground water," says DGGRI.